As evinced by Forrest Gump's unjust triumph over Pulp Fiction, the Academy would usually prefer to play it safe and vote for a tried-and-tested, seeping-with-sentimentality formula film than something non-linear, challenging and violent. It wasn't much of a surprise, then, when Ridley Scott's historical epic Gladiator beat Steven Soderbergh's gritty crime drama Traffic for the Best Picture Oscar. The Academy has has a love affair with historical epics dating back to the 1940s. Along with musicals, there was no other genre so well-represented during the awards for many years. But by the early 2000s, film had changed. The audience had changed, too. The Academy had not. Traffic was a film that took an in-depth look at the war on drugs. It showed how narcotics effected everyone from DEA officials, to Mexican cartels, to pampered suburban teens to respectable businessman and housewives. It was a rich tapestry of a film, with each of its stories shot using different film stock. Gladiator had Russell Crowe fighting a couple of tigers, wearing chainmail and doing his best super-serious acting voice. Crowe, quite astonishingly, took home Best Actor despite being the weakest nominee that year, with his film getting the big prize. As much of a crowd-pleaser as Gladiator was, Traffic is a stone-cold classic and should have really walked away with the big one. Steven Soderbergh can take some solace in his Best Director win, at least.